HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Baker Brothers, Toledo, Ohio 

HHS Determination Concerning a Petition to Add Members to the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Determination Concerning a Petition for Employees from 

Baker Brothers 

Toledo, Ohio 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Baker Brothers, Toledo, Ohio

Page 1 

I. Determination 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have 

determined that the employees defined in Section II of this report do not meet the statutory criteria for 

addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees 

Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q. 

[Signature on File] September 30, 2013 

Kathleen Sebelius Date 

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employees and Department of Energy employees, 

contractors and subcontractors who worked at the Baker Brothers site in

Toledo, Ohio, during the applicable covered residual radiation and 

remediation period from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 1996. 

III. Decision Criteria and Recommendations 

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, to designate a class for addition to the SEC, the Secretary must 

determine, upon recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (the 

Board), that: 

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the class received; 

and 

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have endangered the health of 

members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations to estimate the 

radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, the rule states that radiation 

doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has established that it has access to 

sufficient information to estimate the maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which 

radiation doses are reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the radiation doses of 

members of the class more precisely than a maximum dose estimate. NIOSH determined that it has 

access to sufficient site-specific information to reconstruct radiation doses incurred by the class of 

employees covered by this report with sufficient accuracy. 

In a letter received by the Secretary on September 3, 2013, the Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, 

agreed with the following NIOSH findings, effectively advising the Secretary that radiation dose can 

be reconstructed with sufficient accuracy for employees at the Baker Brothers site in Toledo, Ohio, in 

accordance with provisions of EEOICPA and the SEC final rule. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Baker Brothers, Toledo, Ohio

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IV. Determination Findings 

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees covered by this 

report based upon the findings summarized below.

• Principal sources of internal and external radiation exposures for members of the class included 

contamination from uranium machining fires during clean-up operations. 

• NIOSH has access to sufficient information to reconstruct internal dose due to exposures to 

uranium contamination at the Baker Brothers site during the period from January 1, 1945, through 

December 31, 1996. 

• NIOSH has sufficient data to bound potential external exposures to uranium for workers at the 

Baker Brothers site during the period from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 1996. 

• NIOSH determines that there are methods available in existing procedures, supplemented by sitespecific, breathing zone air data and bioassay data from the remediation period to complete dose 

reconstructions for exposures that occurred during the residual radiation and remediation periods 

from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 1996 

• NIOSH also finds it is not necessary to reconstruct occupational medical dose for this period, as 

x-rays during this period were conducted offsite. 

• In sum, NIOSH determined that it has access to sufficient site-specific information to either (1) 

estimate the maximum internal and external radiation dose for every type of cancer for which 

radiation doses are reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by 

any workers at Baker Brothers for the time period from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 

1996; or (2) estimate the internal and external radiation doses to workers at the Baker Brothers 

site for the time period from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 1996, more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate. 

• The Board concurred with NIOSH's determination that that dose reconstruction is 

feasible for the class of Baker Brothers workers covered by Petition 00204 for the period 

from January 1, 1945, through December 31, 1996, and therefore should not be added to 

the SEC.

Health Endangerment

Because the Secretary established that it is feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation 

doses encountered by employees at the Baker Brothers site in Toledo, Ohio, as specified in this class, 

a determination of health endangerment is not required.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Baker Brothers, Toledo, Ohio

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V. Effect of the Determination

Members of the class of employees covered by this determination and their survivors continue to be 

eligible to submit claims for compensation under EEOICPA. As required for cancer claims covering 

other DOE and Atomic Weapons Employer employees (or Atomic Weapons Employees) not included 

in the SEC, qualified cancer claims under Part B of EEOICPA for members of this class will be 

adjudicated by the Department of Labor, in part on the basis of radiation dose reconstructions, which 

will be conducted by NIOSH.

VI. Administrative Review of Determination

The determination provided in this report may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, 

pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to designate 

the class of employees covered by this determination, in part or in whole, as an addition to the SEC, 

the Secretary would transmit a new report to Congress providing the designation and the criteria and 

findings on which the decision was based.